Thunbergia fragrans
Content
Description
Herbaceous vine. Stems subquadrate to ± flattened, pubescent (strigillose) or glabrate. Petiole slender, 10-45 mm long, naked; blades ovate to narrowly ovate-deltate, 3-11 x 0.9-6.6 cm, acute to acuminate at apex, truncate to subcordate at base, pubescent on both surfaces, venation palmate, margin entire to irregularly sinuate to shallowly, coarsely dentate (especially near base where a few teeth sometimes become lobelike). Inflorescence with flowers axillary; peduncle 20-70 mm long, often stout, pubescent; bracteoles green, ovate, 11-20 x 5-11 mm, acute to acuminate at apex, truncate or rounded at base, pubescent. Calyx 3-5 mm long, 12-17-lobed, lobes subulate, unequal, 1-3 mm long, pubescent; corolla white, 25-50 mm long, externallly pubescent, limb regular, 25-55 mm in diam., lobes broadly elliptic, 10-22 x 13-21 mm, truncate at apex; stamens didynamous, 6-10 mm long, thecae 2.5-3.5 mm long, equal to subequal in size, subparallel, equally to subequally inserted, lacking basal appendages, glabrous; style 15-20 mm long, glabrous, stigma funnelform, not noticeably 2-lobed, 1.5-1.8 mm long. Capsule 10-27 mm long, densely pubescent, body subglobose, 8-13 mm in diam., stout, flattened, subulate beak 10-19 mm long; seeds 4, 4-5 mm in diam., with a prominent pore on flat side, surface wrinkled and covered with scurfy, scalelike projections.
Distribution
American tropics present, Asia-Tropical: India, Guianas present
Native of India, widely cultivated as ornamental and naturalized in the American tropics; in disturbed habitats in tropical regions throughout most parts of the world; 59 collections studied of which 14 from the Guianas (GU: 1; SU: 13).